Thread: Where have all of the Java Developers gone?

I moved your thread to the cafe, since it's not an actual programming question.

There are plenty of Java developers, and plenty of Java development jobs (I'm at one right now). I'd recommend doing a search on linkedin or something similar for Java related jobs. If you or your friend can't find Java developers, you might want to examine what you're offering or how you're reaching out to people.

As for whether learning Java is a good idea, of course it is, assuming you want to be a Java programmer.

Think of programming languages as tools. Each language has its own pros and cons, jobs it's good at, jobs it's bad at, etc. Learning how to use one does not mean you can't learn other languages, just like learning how to use a saw doesn't mean you shouldn't learn how to use a hammer.

Listing Java's strengths and weaknesses would fill up a book, but the gist is that Java is more easily maintained, higher-level, and less error-prone than lower-level languages like C and C++. Plus it's more portable because it's platform independent, which means you can write a program once and have it run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Plus Android uses it. People claim that the trade-off is that Java is slower than languages that are closer to the metal, but that's inaccurate at best and downright untrue in many cases. Other languages are specialized for specific fields (like lisp and prolog for AI), so it really depends what you want to do.

But like I said, there is no rule saying that you can only learn one language. In fact, most programmers end up learning more than one language, and each one helps you understand the others even better.